The Ali Forney Center (AFC), based in New York City, is the largest LGBT community center helping LGBTQ homeless youth in the United States.[1] The AFC both manages and develops transitional housing for its clients.[2] AFC helps approximately 2,000 youth clients each year, primarily between sixteen and twenty-four years old.[3] AFC is named after Ali Forney, a transgender youth who was murdered in New York in 1997.[3]
Description
AFC has 15 residential sites in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. In 2012, AFC provided 77 beds a night for homeless LGBTQ youth.[4] AFC also runs a drop-in center, open 24/7, where clients can apply for housing, receive food and hygiene services and can access free medical and mental health care .[4] AFC Founder Carl Siciliano says that the clients served by the drop-in center are often in the most acute crisis.[5] AFC serves the LGBTQ population because they represent approximately forty percent of New York's young homeless people.[6]
History
Ali Forney Center marchers in 2011
AFC has served homeless LGBTQ youth in New York since 2002.[7] The organization was founded by Carl Siciliano.[3] When AFC first opened, it had only six beds.[8] Siciliano, who knew and respected Forney, recalls that it was a challenge to secure funding for the first two years of the organization's operation.[9] By 2007, AFC had 32 beds, 50 staff and offered wraparound services including free medical care, HIV testing, hygiene services, job training and job placement through the drop-in center.[10]
During the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the drop-in center was flooded.[5] A fundraiser hosted by Ally Sheedy helped raise money for the organization to relocate and reopen the drop-in center.[5] An additional $100,000 was raised in one day to help the organization through word of mouth and social media.[5]
In July 2015, AFC broke ground on its new Bea Arthur Residence.[11] The housing site is named after the actress, Bea Arthur, who left $300,000 in her will to AFC.[12] Arthur's endowment to the shelter enabled it stay open during the recession in 2009.[13] In 2012, the New York City Council and the Manhattan borough president provided $3.3 million to renovate the building that will house the Bea Arthur Residence.[12] In addition to the money that she left in her will, Arthur also helped raise $40,000 for AFC in 2005 with her one-woman show, "Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends."[14]
The organization has received donations from other sources as well in order to expand and help maintain operating costs. In 2009, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island donated $200,000 to help the organization stay open after losing nearly $450,000 in funding due to the economic downturn.[3]
^Henderson, William (September 25, 2007). "The New Order". Advocate (993): 111. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2015. – via EBSCO (subscription required)
